Spring Branch Medical Center to close by May 1

TODD ACKERMAN, Copyright 2010 Houston Chronicle

Published 5:30 am, Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Spring Branch Medical Center, a fixture in the community for more than 50 years, will close by May 1, its parent company announced Tuesday, a casualty of changing demographics and suburban competition.

HCA Gulf Coast Division officials attributed the decision to “significant operational losses over the last five years” resulting from the vast majority of area residents choosing other options for their inpatient care. They said the hospital will continue to operate such outpatient programs as radiation oncology, imaging services and emergency care.

“HCA Gulf Coast Division's mission of providing access to quality care must be carefully balanced to reflect the needs of the area and services the community supports,” Maura Walsh, president of HCA Gulf Coast, said in a statement. “Spring Branch Medical Center has had declining inpatient utilization for several years, but the services we are retaining there are obviously still needed and can be sustained.”

Walsh said retaining the outpatient services will enable the company to serve 40 percent of the hospital's patients in their own community.

Most Popular

The decision comes three months after HCA Gulf Coast tried selling the struggling hospital to the Harris County Hospital District, which hasn't added beds since 1991 and was in the market for more in 2009. But district president and CEO David Lopez responded at the time that the district needed to finish its ongoing strategic planning before considering any acquisition.

County still undecided

Though Lopez said at the time the planning process should finish in early February, it is still ongoing. Lopez issued a written statement Tuesday stating that “if it is determined that we need to add capacity, the district will explore any and all options.”

The hospital, on Long Point between the Katy Freeway and U.S. 290, is licensed for 299 beds, but is only operating 160 and just 80 of those are being used. The hospital lost $21 million in the fiscal year ending June 30, 2008, and $16 million in fiscal year 2007, according to Medicare cost reports it filed.

Tuesday's announcement left the Spring Branch Medical Center “very depressed, with much crying,” said Dr. Ali Azimpoor, a neurological surgeon on staff.

“It's a tragedy for the community,” said Azimpoor. “This was the crown jewel hospital in the area.”

Azimpoor last month wrote HCA accusing its leadership of mismanaging the hospital by ignoring staff input and alienating high-admitting doctors. HCA officials would not respond to the charge.

But the closing of Spring Branch is just the latest in a trend of hospitals in areas between the Texas Medical Center and the far-flung suburbs finding it difficult to compete. St. Joseph and Memorial Hermann Southwest hospitals also have been put up for sale in recent years because they couldn't hold on to patients.

Gelb also noted that Spring Branch is much less affluent than it was in the 1960s, when it was Houston's western-most hospital. It has since been out-flanked by a number of hospitals, most noticeably Memorial Hermann-Memorial City.

Job placement help

Spring Branch Medical Center was founded in 1958 and acquired by HCA Gulf Coast in 1986.

In a news release, HCA Gulf Coast said it will closely work with hospital employees to determine opportunities at other HCA-affiliated facilities and with other employers; and with medical staff to ensure continuity of care for patients. The center employs 568 people.

Among those saddened by the news was Debbie Baker, one of three generations in her family to be a patient at the hospital.

“It's just a shame that they couldn't think of some way to save the hospital,” said Baker, 55, a database administrator whose sister was born there, parents had surgery there and daughter was treated there.